


Bennie and Spore

by Totallyottie99



Series: The Mysterious Adventures of Bennie and Spore [1]
Category: Aliens - Fandom, Bennie and spore, Original characters - Fandom
Genre: Alien Plot, Alien love, Alien/Human Relationships, Aliens, Film Noir, Found Family, Horror, Jealousy, Multi, Murder Mystery, Murder Plot, Mystery, Original Characters - Freeform, Original Female Character - Freeform, Outer Space, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Private Investigator, Science Fiction, Secret Agent, Space Opera, Space War, Sweet Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Symbiotic Relationship, Venom OC - Freeform, bennie - Freeform, haunted forest, nice family, odd couple, odd name, orange alien, polyamorous, spore, venom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-09-24 13:59:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17101925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Totallyottie99/pseuds/Totallyottie99
Summary: When a girl finds a refugee hydra alien and brings it home, who is really saved?





	1. Night of Trepidation

It was about 11:35pm when Bennie climbed back through her bedroom window.  
As she clung protectively to the squirming bag in her arms, she tried to catch her breath. Her short reddish brown hair was messy and had several leaves and sticks entwined in it from the dense woods she just ran through, with one hand still on the bag, she did her best to clean her hair while also wiping her face of dirt and smeared blood. The light grey bag she was carrying made a soft thud as she gently placed it on the wooden floor of her loft. She followed suit like a rookie burglar. Mind you she didn’t steal anything ...technically, but to her, the contents in the bag could be considered a priceless treasure she quiet literally swore to protect. She snuck across the small messy room to the only door visible to check down the hall, making sure not to disturb the floorboards and piles of clothes and scraped papers as she opened the door. She sighed when seeing that the light was still off, her Grandfather, Pops, was still asleep.

“Okay, coasts clear.” She whispered that to seemingly no one as she plopped herself into the bed adjacent to the window. Faceplanting with a groan, she kicking off her long boots ungracefully. The bag shifted slightly at the sound of her voice, but did not stir. Confused, she turned her head to the side and peered with one open grey eye at the bag inquisitively, her red headband sliding off her head onto the worn pillow.  
Bennie whispered,“Look, I said you can stay here okay? But you don’t have to stay in that bag the whole time. Besides, we don’t have many neighbors around if you’re worried about being seen...” 

A few minutes of silence passed as she waited. It much harder to keep her eyes open after the rough night she just had, getting this bag and it’s contents safely back to her home. The rising bruise on her right ankle complaining softly. She shifted to her side to get a better viewing angle of the floor. She finally relented, letting her eyes close.

Suddenly, she heard The sound of something wet and heavy scraping across the floor. Her eyes snapped open. Bennie leaned over her bed to look at the bag, which was now empty. Even though the dark room was dimly lit by the outside street lamp, she could see thin skid marks on the wood leading underneath her bed. She hissed in a breath, Pops wasn’t going to be happy about that.

Leaning further over the frame, she quickly tucked her brownish red hair aside and looked into the darkness under the bed, only to be greeted by what seemed to be a dim orange glow with countless pairs of light blue, pupil-less eyes starring questionably back out at her silently. Small dust-like specks of yellow dimmed and brightened as a subtle warning. She grinned at this cheerfully, she didn’t want her guest to be even more upset by yelling at them already for ruining her floor.

“Well, goodnight stranger! If you need anything just yell or shake me awake, I’ve been known to be a heavy sleeper.” She winked, pulling off one of the many pillows from her bed and placing it at slowly on the floor where it could reach.

“This is for you, if your um... rock needs cushion I mean.”  
“...Thank you.” Dozens of voices softly replied. Bennie’s eyes widened slightly at the sound, they hadn’t spoken since she started carrying them back, she still wasn’t used to hearing it just yet. It sounded like a small crowd of raspy-voiced people were under her bed. She chuckled a bit at the sudden thought of hiding a tiny choir in her house. The mass seemed to flinch a bit at the noise, several eyes widening in surprise. She put a hand over her mouth, she really didn’t want to scare them. 

“Dont worry, I’ll make sure to provide you with whatever you need first thing in the morning, for now, just rest a bit, I don’t know if you need to sleep, but I do.”  
“... We sleep...”  
“Oh good! I was worried if you would be bored.” She laughed as she rolled back onto the bed. The old bed creaking slightly as the weight shifted. She closed her eyes again, wincing a bit at her leg again as she pullled the blankets over herself. Maybe she had to get it checked out later...

“Well... goodnight stranger... I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
………………………………………………………………………………

As Bennie finally drifted to sleep, occasionally tossing and turning as she dreamed, the thing under her bed finally moved.  
Light orange tendrils and snakelike forms slowly ebbed their way around the perimeter of the bed frame, their eyes scouring the small stuffy room with a mixture of tired wariness and almost childlike curiosity. The larger parts of the mass wrapped their way over the chairs and lone desk, the formless given form as the eyes grouped together only to emerge as various heads and upper torso amalgamations that glanced sheepishly around their new surroundings with bright blue eyes. Not one face looking the same, some with long or short hair, others clearly feminine or masculine, others under-formed or less detailed, continuously emerging from under the bed until when about twelve began to cramp the room that the flow of orange creation stopped. The figures were still, each glancing around with the same evicted faces of awe and fear.  
They were tired, but the primal curiosity that had beckoned them out had not been sated just yet. They had to explore this room, they had to understand the life of this human girl that had saved them from a rather unfavorable predicament. All at once hands and claws of various sizes and shapes emerged from the figures, carefully tapping, caressing, or simply feeling every part of the room as silently and gently as they could. One figure with Long claws hunched over, trailing the new marks on the floor while another with small slender hands cupped the lamp, surprised and pleased at the warmth that still remained, another three were looking through the rather large collection of book series on a shelf that nearly took up one of the walls. 

They all avoided the large window that acted as an oculus to the dangerous outside, their fears and discoveries silently shared as they acted as one shared consciousness. A slight noise from the girl that they avoided touching out of curtesy had them reverting back to the strange stone under the bed in a flash of orange and blues the naked eye could not catch.  
Seconds ticked on as Bennie shifted in her sleep before settling once more. A moment of stillness disturbed by the small snakelike figure that emerged from underneath once more, alone this time.  
It scaled the bed with ease, its blue eyes looking at the human with an unreadable expression. Softly, ever so softly, it laid its head inches from hers on the bed, just staring at Bennie as it seemed to ponder something. Seeming to come to a resolution, it closed its eyes as well, copying the girls breathing as it tried to calm itself down. It listened to her breathing and heartbeat slow in a slight trance as it began to feel drowsy as well. It did not know how they could possibly feel this relaxed after to much it’s had to endure, but it did not question it, they needed the rest.  
It, or rather, they silently retreated back under the bed onto the pillow, whispering in Unison for the last time that night for the girl that saved them as they all began their own form of sleep;  
“Goodnight Bennie.”


	2. Big Things have Brave Beginnings

As she drifted in and out of a restless sleep. Bennie couldn’t help but reminisce about the life-changing events That just happened. She still couldn’t believe that all this happened now, after what seemed like just another day in her rather unusual life.  
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It was around dusk in the small sheltered town of SilverSurvey, about the time when her rather erratic Grandfather, ‘Pops’ as he liked to call himself, closed up the antique store that also acted as their house. She started living with him around the time she dropped out of the nearby college, helping categorize the items and restock the shelves with antiques and oddities that she’d sometimes find while exploring the imfamously haunted woods that wrapped around the town for dozens of miles around. Apparently she had a ‘knack’ for finding strange things that her grandfather would sell to the ‘tourists’ that riddles the town like parasites.

It was early fall, a rather busy time of the year considering it was almost Halloween, meaning that Bennie had to bring back almost 10 times the usual amount of ‘goods’ to help keep the shop afloat for the new influx of tourists who wanted ‘authentic’ decor for their homes and parties. Making her stay outside for longer hours and getting less sleep, stressing both her and her Grandfather, who had to work at the shop alone and make sure no one stole anything. Despite what she thought of the people who only viewed her home as some sort of ‘witch shop’, she couldn’t exactly say she hated her job.

Before she dropped out, she was a Photography major, walking through the woods was both a hobby and professional job for her. She loved to photograph the strange fauna she would sometimes find and sell it to nearby wildlife and science facilities for research purposes. She felt she made a pretty decent amount of side cash from that as well. Which gave her a bit of extra cash to help save up for when she could finally get a place of her own. As much as she loved her Pops, she didn’t want to live on the second floor of an antique shop for the rest of her life.

This day was no different to her, she did her job like a pro, cleaning up a dropped jar of red berries while doing her best to avoid being sucked into meaningless confrontations with people who wanted to know about the best ‘ghost hot spots’ in the town, or wanted to take pictures of her in her uniform apron to prove they were actually in the town. Pops found it ironic that as much as she liked to take pictures of the world around her, she hated having her own photo taken.

As the clock rolled around to 8, her grandfather began to scoot the lagging customers out the door, meeting their crude and prim remarks with jolly laughter and jovious jokes about how every store had to close at 8 as an unspoken rule. It wasn’t exactly a lie, every shop did technically close at 8 because the mayor wanted to crack down on nighttime drunken burglaries that people visiting tended to do when they were on vacation in SilverSurvey. Bennie didn’t really know why, maybe it was a frat boy initiation or something.

Bennie had just started to head upstairs to call it a night when her Pops suddenly surprised her with a sneak attack bear hug. Lifting her up off he ground with ease, causing her to laugh off the bad mood she was in.

She chuckled, “Okay okay, you got me. Now put me down or you’ll hurt your back!”

The deep voice behind her gasped dramatically as he plopped her back down on the ground. Bennie turned to look up at her huge Lumberjack of a Grandfather.

“I’ll have you know little lady that my bones are still as healthy as a man in his prime, Which I still am!” He said as he laughed heartily, Flexing am arm for emphasis.

Bennie had been told by the older ladies of the town that her Pops was what could be described as a ‘Fox’. He was over 6ft tall with large burly arms and upper body, rather unusual for a guy in his mid 50’s. His tan skin and rather Mocha complexion, in addition to his unusual red beard with streaks of white zigzagging through it and his slicked back messy hair hiding his amber eyes made most people who came to the shop lose their train of thought, in fact, Bennie was pretty sure that he was the reason most people who came in were older single people, men and women alike couldn’t help but like the guy. She could definitely see why, Pops practically radiated happiness no matter what, he was the type of guy to ask the guy who delivered packages to his door to come in and hang out like they had known each other for years. She was forever grateful that he didn’t give her a hard time for quitting school like she did. She smiled, continuing their banter;

“For a man in his prime, you sure do sleep a lot like an old man, I saw you earlier dozing in the back room when you were hiding from that weird lady who wanted to take you out to the ghost tour with her book club friends.”

“Hey, that was accidental! I went back there to get my phone to trade numbers, I just happened to doze off cause I had to wait for it to charge!” He objected as they made their way upstairs together. Playfully elbowing her in the shoulder as they both laughed it off. 

“Say, did you eat anything? I think I still have enough energy to make something small.” He continued once they were on the second floor. Bennie stretched, she hadn’t eaten in a while, but wasn’t really up to it.

“Yeah I ate earlier, can we have waffles tomorrow?” 

“Sure thing, don’t stay up too late tonight, we need to get up early tomorrow to sort through the stuff you brought back with you today.”

Bennie groaned loudly in protest, but Pops was already heading down the other side of the narrow hall to his room.

“Don’t start now Ben, it’s important we do it before we open. Besides, it won’t take long, I trust you brought back tons of incredible things.” He said, stopping just outside his door. It was true, today she found part of a whalebone, a couple of smooth glowing rocks that stuck together like magnets, and an empty blue butterfly chrysalis the size of a dinner plate.  
“Fine.” She said, walking over to her side of the hall, waving as she shut the door. 

Bennie wouldn’t call herself a slob, but looking at her room now as she accidentally knocked over a pile of books on the floor made her feel like she was. She thought that perhaps She just needed a bigger room, this did use to be more like a closet before she moved in after all. Sitting down at the tiny desk she was able to wedge into the corner, she sighed as her legs finally got to relax for the first time that day. She figited with the camera that was in the center of the desk slightly, taking notice of a new blemish on the side due to it hitting the ground earlier when she crouched down to photograph some rocks she found with small yellow lichens on it. 

She grumbled a bit as she stretched out her back against the chair, thinking as she looked absently out the window to her left. The woods were as spooky as usual, the density packed branches made strange shapes and silhouettes that certainly helped it earn its haunted reputation. But she wasn’t really bothered by it like other people were, after all, she was one of the few people in her town that didn’t believe that the woods were haunted. It was a eerie place sure, but in all her times here she’s never seen even a hint of ghosts. 

One of the cooler aspects of living in a small town was the lack of light pollution, the stars that she could make out between the trees twinkles a bright blue as she watched. She felt a small nostalgic twinge in her gut at the memory of stargazing as a child with her parents before she moved away to college. When she told them about her decision to drop out they basically kicked her out of the house, only letting her come by to get her things when she finally found a place to live when Pops offered her a place to stay out of the blue. She didn’t really have much contact with him when she got older, but she was grateful for his generous offer and basically begged him to let her work for him to pay him back for his generosity.

Her thoughts were like this for a while as she either stared out the window or shuffled through her already developed photos to find the best ones to sell later in her free time. Suddenly, she looked up.

 

Looking back, she couldn’t say exactly what it was that made her look out the window when she did. Her back was to it in that moment because she was putting scrap photos on another floor pile, but for some reason she turned around to look at the sky again.  
There seemed to be a... flicker in the sky. She blinked, thinking it was just the after image of the desk lamp. But as she watched the spot in the sky. She realized that it was indeed something she was seeing. It was a small flaring steak across the sky, a brilliant bright light of blue that seemed to be heading straight down. Odd, shooting stars usually went sideways from what she’s been told. Maybe it was a satellite? 

Picking up her camera, Bennie positioned herself so she could zoom in and get a better look at what she was seeing. After tinkering with the lighting and focus, she could see that whatever it was, it was very high up. The size of it got progressively larger the closer it got to the point that it was going so fast towards the ground she couldn’t follow it with her camera anymore. Putting it down she could definitely see it with her own eyes now. It flashed a brilliant burning blue as it plummeted towards the earth. She watched with growing anticipation, she was excited about this, she’s never found a meteor before. Maybe if she was lucky it would land in he back yard. It would certainly be enough money to finally move out and start her own path in life.  
As she watched, it finally seemed to disappear from her line of sight once it hit the tree line. Flashing in fragmented sections in the split second it passed through the dense branches and finally hit the ground with an audible ‘thud’. Shaking the house just slightly with the intact. 

Bennie opened the window then, hoping to get a better view of where it could have landed. By her guesstimate, it was possibly a few hundred feet into the woods, she could easily get there within the hour if she went now. Grabbing her camera, bag, and a nearby flashlight she had, she turned her room light off and hooked one leg over the side before she hesitated.

Maybe she should wait till morning? After all, even if there weren’t any ghosts, there were certainly animals and things that could be cause for worry. Besides, if she left now Pops wouldn’t know if she was missing till the morning. Thinking fast she left a note on some sticky paper before heading to the window again. There would be no way she would be able to remember the exact spot it landed once it got brighter out. She had to do this now before someone else got it. Her thoughts turned to the other people in the town who would just love to sell something like this to finally move out of town before she could possible be able to. And besides, she was SO CLOSE to it, she could practically see the small glow of fire from the landing. With the thought of freedom on her mind, she hooked her other leg over the side and scaled the wall down to the ground. 

“Okay, no turning back now Bennie.” She mumbled to herself, feeling more exposed to the wilderness now that she was out in the open. Turning in the flashlight, she turned towards where she saw it land, took a deep breath to calm her rising nerves, and started walking into the dark woods.

It didn’t take her long to immediately regret her decision, even though she’d gladly walk through the forest at any time during the day,the night was a different story. The once welcoming silence felt almost suffocating the deeper in she went, paying extra caution to where she stepped in case a hidden rock or tree root made her trip. The crunching leaves, added to the silence, was even more unnerving. She turned her head towards the house once she was a few yards in, since the lights in some of the rooms were still on she would be able to find her way back if she got lost. Emboldened, she continued searching.

The first indication she got that she was close was the smell of burning leaves that permitted the chilly autumn air, trying to follow it, she began to see several clues like large sections of broken branches that simmered slightly with smoke when she pointed her flashlight up to figure out the path it had taken down to earth. Luckily nothing was actually on fire, if it were she would have had to turn back to call the only towns firefighter to come put it out, meaning that she would have lost her chance to find it. She continued on, knowing that she was close now when the broken branches trailed down towards the ground at an angle the further she went down the trail it made.

The smell of burning leaves was almost overpowering at this point, Bennie gagged a bit through the haze, bringing a hand over her mouth as she began to search the forest floor. Noting how quiet it was, no crickets or owls to be heard due to the rather big disturbance to their nightly adventures.

Suddenly, she spotted what she was looking for, a fresh shallow trench in the soil that indicated its landing path. Kneeling down to get a better look, she snapped a quick pic of the baked soil and simmering smoke that rose slightly in places. It seemed to continue for a good while to she stood up and followed it for a few dozen feet before the forest floor seemed to vanish from her flashlights reach. She stopped immediately, realizing where she was.

This was ‘The Pit’, an abandoned mining site that collapsed in on itself mysteriously during its first years operation. What had remained of it was a round hole in the ground that was about 100ftx150ft, with about a 10 foot drop in the most shallow spots. People came here to dump the stuff they couldn’t just throw away. It was a rather popular spot for teenagers and young adults to hang out and break stuff. She herself came here a few times to salvage antiques that the punks didn’t break. The meteor or satellite thing must have fallen down there before it could slow to a stop, moving the light a bit to the left to see the slopped off end of the landing trail, confirmed her suspicions. 

This would be a new problem, how would she be able to get down there? Even if she did, what if whatever it was was broken? Even if the drop from space didn’t break it who was to say a few more feet couldn’t finish the job? Kneeling down at the very edge of the pit, she looked around for something the could use to either land on or use to climb in and out. There was a rusty car, but it was too far in for her to jump down on without a running start, which she didn’t want to risk. After a few minutes of looking around the bowl-like walls of the pit, she finally found a set of makeshift stairs made out of boxes, crates, and even a sofa. It must have been a new addition.

“The kids must have made this.” Her voice echoed through the pit as she made her way over to it. It was a little rickety, but it would do. She made her way down quickly and shakily, hopping off the last ‘step’ onto her shaking legs. She let out a breath of relief that it didn’t collapse under her weight. Looking around the lip of the pit to find the trail, she walked over to where she figured it must have landed.

Just underneath where the soil was disrupted, she could see what looked like a large wooden crate, the top if it had a large burned hole in it from where the thing must have melted through, the wood was glowing a slight red at the ends of the hole still. Bennie walked forward and placed her hands on the crate, it was slightly warm, it came up to about her hip in size. She had to lean forward slightly to look through the hole to see if she could see in. Bracing a hand on the box suddenly caused it to tip over, making both her and the box to fall over to their sides. Bennie fell with a slight ‘oof’, she wasn’t expecting that. Looking up, she saw that the box was actually placed up against the wall on top of a fire extinguisher for some reason, her applied weight to the side was what caused it to finally roll off.  
“What the hell?” She exclaimed as she dusted herself off and regained her composure. Looking over at the box once more, more irritated than confused.

The box was positioned to that the burnt hole was now facing Bennie instead of upwards, it’s contents making the air around it shake with heat. Peering in, she couldn’t really believe what she saw.  
Inside the crate was a large blue rock the size of a basketball. It was ovular and riddled with shallow mottled holes that reflected strangely from the light of the flashlight, it simmered slightly with steam and radiated heat onto her face. Bennie’s mouth fell open, grey eyes widening with awe, it was incredibly beautiful to her, almost like the inside of an oyster shell. She found herself scooting as close as the heat would allow to get a better look. She didn’t even consider taking a picture, there was no way a photo could capture the fractal light display that scattered about the complex, almost glasslike surface, it was veined like a lapis lazuli Stone upon further inspection, but much more complex and almost computer wire looking.

Not even a minute passed before she broke eye contact with it to glance sound the pit, remembering why she was here. She had to bring this back with her, but it was still too hot to touch. Thinking fast, she emptied out her bag and inverted it to act as a makeshift oven mitt. But the moment the fabric touched the surface the most unexpected thing happened.

Suddenly, Bennie was looking up at the stars, she was confused before feeling budding pain in her Back and neck, something had thrown her backwards. Sitting up slowly, she looked over to where the box was several feet away, the stone was sitting outside of it now, as if it had been there the entire time. She stared at it a moment as her brain tried to catch up with her.  
“What..?” She said aloud, the word came out as she was processing her confusion. Pulling her knees up as she moved into a sitting position. She winced a bit at her right leg, She landed pretty hard on a old car bumper. Her hands braced her upper body as she looked at the stone, not trusting herself to move just yet.

Her voice echoed once more across the pit. The rock seemed to shift ever so slightly that she was sure her eyes were playing tricks on her. Suddenly, the meteor seemed to explode as blurred orange movements erupted from the holes and surrounded her before she could even blink. Looking up, she found herself surrounded by a strange orange slime-like gelatinous mass that constantly shifted and coiled about with tiny tendrils, flecks of gold and spatters of yellow continuously dimmed and brightened in a way that reminded her of when a deep sea squid lights up. Bennie held herself still, she felt like her every action was being watched and judged. She dared not even breathe.

As quick as it came out of the stone, blue spots suddenly erupted all over the surface of the creature, Bennie felt herself go cold as she watched the blue spots pair off and the orange amalgamation bunch up and branch into various snakelike shapes. It was looking at her in such a way that Bennie felt like she was the alien in this scenario. Maybe to this thing, she thought, she was. It suddenly did something that made her even more nervous. The ‘heads’ that she could see expanded and grew, stretching taller and growing more complex until Bennie realized that it was mimicking her appearance somewhat. It’s face, or faces, watched her like they were waiting for her to make the first move, but she couldn’t budge, couldn’t even breath as the weight of her sudden discovery pressed the air out of her lungs, she felt incredibly in over her head and began to draw in quick, nearly hysterical breaths, the sounds of her panic caused it to freeze it’s movements as well. And for a few minutes it merely watched her with near-unnatural stillness as she struggled quietly for air.

“U-Um...Hello?.” She managed to gasp out questionably as the creature(s) that had her surrounded. She couldn’t tell what it was waiting for, if it even was thinking. It seemed... surprised? It seemed to retreat back slightly when she spoke, but quickly composed itself and regained the lost distance between them. Bennie kept glancing around at each face as she sat on the ground, not really sure which face she should be focusing on. 

“Ah. She speaks.” A shared whisper seemed to ripple through the figures surrounding her. Bennie yelped in surprise, covering her ears instinctively as she curled into herself. Unsure if they would attack her. A smaller part of her brain was pondering over a hundred questions that she didn’t even dare say aloud. The creature(s) seemed emboldened by her display of weakness, their formed sagged a bit as they bowed down over her, just looking at her like her panic was the most interesting thing it’s ever seen. In response to this, Bennie suddenly spoke before she could think.

“Yeah. she speaks, and she’s pretty damn scared at the moment so could you give me some breathing room please?” She clamped her mouth shut, she couldn’t believe she just did that, she just spoke to an alien, an actual alien! The thing seemed rather taken aback by her sass as well, it’s pupil-less eyes widening a bit before they obliged to her request, much to her relief. She was able to relax a bit. So they weren’t going to eat her? If they were nice enough to listen to her maybe they weren’t dangerous? She looked up questionably at the faces, now that she got a good look at them, she saw that not a single one looked a like, each form had a different physical structure to themselves that conjoined together in a large mass of see-through liquid that connected back to the stone, which floated weightlessly within it. 

“So... what are you? Why did you rocket yourself directly into the woods?” Bennie’s questions began to bubble up suddenly as her nerves quieted to a low enough simmer that she felt brave enough to stand up. The thing seemed to ponder her once more, tightening the group circle around her a bit as she spoke, it’s mock forms leaning forward to look at her better. It seemed... interested that she was talking to it? While it’s facial expressions didn’t change, it’s body language was a bit easier to understand to her.

“What makes you think you have any power over us to order us to reveal such personal things?” It answered after a moment. Bennie couldn’t tell if it’s monotone was intentional or not. She also noted that it referred to itself as ‘We’. Interesting.

“Hey I wasn’t ordering you, I was just curious is all. If you don’t want to say anything that’s fine. Can you at least tell me your name...or names?” She asked, gentling her voice a bit when she noticed it’s ‘shoulders’ tense up, maybe they were just as scared as she was, after all, she was probably the first human they’ve ever met. 

“We don’t have names... to you we are just a stranger.” they responded so softly she wasn’t quite sure if she heard them. Looking around at them, she noticed how they took turns glancing away from her to take in their surroundings with almost systematic patterns, maybe they had a way of silent communication? She frowned at what they just said.

“Well... stranger, my names Bennie. Nice to meet you.” She smiled slightly as she extended her arm in formal greeting. They flinched and stared at her hand, eyes wide with caution and curiosity, she had never seen that expression on someone before in real life. As she watched, a set of arms emerged from the short-haired figure in front of her, it looked down at its arm before awkwardly mimicking her gesture, nearly smacking her in the face. She was expecting this, and gently but firmly grabbed its hand with both of hers, giving it a light shake. It’s eyes flashed a deep blue before the color crept over the inside of its face to where it’s cheeks would be, emitting a soft blue glow. Bennie realized it was mimicking the blush that must have been on her face, which now felt hot she quickly let go of its hand and smiled again. 

“Say, what will you do now? I mean, now that you’re here on Earth?” She asked, watching as the multiple forms merged together into a single, more solid looking one that towered over her, Bennie noted it had legs now. Looking away from her, it scoured the starry horizon and sky with narrowed eyes.

“Hide.” It said simply. Moving it’s arms in a cradling position as the stone emerged from its chest into its waiting Limbs. Bennie raised an eyebrow.

“What are you hiding from exactly?” 

“None of your business.” It stated flatly before beginning to walk away. Bennie stood there for a moment, just watching it walk away with uneven steps before it collapsed onto the ground. Gasping, Bennie ran up to it.

“Are you alright?”

“Tired, not used to walking like this, two legs is hard to balance, we haven’t eaten in a while either.” It grumbled pitifully as its form was seemingly sucked back into the stone. Hesitantly, Bennie placed a hand on it, surprised to find it cool. She wanted... she didn’t know what she wanted, she was just almost nearly killed by it and now she felt bad for it. She rubbed she stone slightly to feel the texture while weighting the pros and cons of going through with her thoughts, she could bring it back with her, then what? How could she tell Pops? Should she report this to some science facility who were more qualified for this kind of thing? Looking down, she saw a small snakelike head emerge from one of the holes to look up at her. Her heart ached when she realized it looked almost like a sad lost puppy. A sad lost alien puppy that was made up of other orange puppies. She groaned as she caved in.

“Look, if you want I can bring you back to where I live if you need a place to ‘hide’... it’s not big and I’m not offering anything extravagant, but it’s somewhere you can rest and eat for a bit.” She relented, sitting criss-cross with the meteor on her lap. More snake heads emerged and looked at her with unreadable expressions. She stared back, not letting her nerves overtake her again like earlier.

“Can you promise not to tell others of our presence?” It requested after a moment of thought. Bennie looked down at them as she thought. She didn’t take pictures of anything since finding the landing trail, so it wasn’t like she had any evidence or anything. At this point she felt guilty at even the thought of just handing it, or them over to the fbi or science facility for a quick buck. She knew people like that, people who screamed and destroyed things that were different. People like her parents who she vowed never to become... she shut that thought down and nodded to the creature.

“I promise I’ll protect you as long as you’re living in my home.” She said finally. Smiling as she did. The eyes stared some more at her face as they read her sincerity. Blinking slowly in silent consent, they receded one by one into the stone one more. Allowing Bennie to lift it. It was heavier than it looked, but she wasn’t surprised anymore by all the unexpected things she’s seen tonight. Placing the meteor into her bag as cushion. She began making the walk back home, feeling somehow lighter than she felt earlier. Her strange companion silently watching the woods from the holes in the fabric. 

 

Several minutes passed after the girl left the clearing before a humanoid grey-blue figure emerged from the darkness of the trees. It walked over to the box, paused, and kicked it over with cold rage before moving on, towards the noises of the town and the two young people nearby, searching for the creature that managed to escape its clutches.

Moving fast, the Agent began his mission as Bennie took her new companion home, two opposing paths now connected together in unexpected ways.


	3. Waffles and Wisdom

Waking up that morning wasn’t easy for Bennie considering the late night she just had.

The alarm went off at 5am that day, awakening her with a jolt. The events of that evening came flooding back to her as she sat up in bed, already looking over the side of the bed to where she assumed her ‘guest’ still was.  
The dozens of eyes looking out at her were unblinking as usual while she slid onto the floor in a sitting position, wincing a bit at her leg that was still badly bruised. Since it was still dark outside the orange glow of their skin danced across hers like a small fire. 

“Good morning stranger! Are you feeling better today?” She greeted cheerfully, resisting the urge to just reach under the bed to coax them out. Bennie wanted them to come out on their own terms. To her surprise, it moved slim tendrils and small snake heads forward slightly so it was just inches away from her legs, it seemed to trust her a bit more than it did last night. Bennie noted that it appeared... weaker somehow, it’s form Wasn’t as smooth as it was last night and it’s glow was a bit dimmer now, the eyes sat under heavy eyelids and the tendrils seemed smaller. Concerned, she reached an arm out hesitantly and caressed one of the heads reassuringly with her fingers, it’s eyes widened again, but it did not pull away at the brief contact.

“We’re better, but... We’re hungry... we haven’t eaten in a long time.” It stated, sliding itself out from under the bed completely, pulling the rock out on the pillow she gave them last night. She looked around her room, trying to spot any loose snacks she could give them. Eventually finding a unopened KitKat bar on the floor that she scooted over to grab, unwrapping it and holding it out to the Alien at an arms length.

“Here, try this. I’ll bring up some leftover breakfast too in a little while.” As she watched, the heads resubmerged themselves into the rock once more before reappearing as a single humanoid shape that was slightly taller than her. Bennie had no idea how it could all fit into a tiny rock, but decided to save that question for a later time. 

It’s eyes seemed to look at her quickly before lowering itself to the chocolate bar, seeming to study it before, to Bennie’s surprise, it opened its ‘mouth’. It’s featureless face seemed to darken slightly as a thin line split open horizontally across where a human mouth would be located, as it’s mouth opened small sharp teeth came out of the cavity in rows of two that reminded her of a sharks. Before she could react it quickly bit into the KitKat as far as her hand allowed, it seemed to avoid biting her much to her relief. It’s mouth disappearing once more as it looked back up at her, it didn’t chew like she expected, but she could tell it was already ‘digested’ since she couldn’t see it through the darkened spot of opaque orange skin. The dark spot lightened to its original orange color as it ‘swallowed’ the mass, which disappeared back into the rock. 

“That was good, is there more?” It spoke quietly as it looked down at her once it straightened up from it’s crouch. Bennie found that her mouth was agape in shock from watching it eat and she quickly shut it, embarrassed, she looked away from it towards the door. She had to leave soon before Pops would get suspicious and come in to wake her up. 

“Not at the moment, but I promise I’ll bring more food later, right now I have to go.”

“Go? For how long?” They said, sitting up straighter as Bennie stood up to get her things. She turned back to look at them, suddenly feeling bad. For some reason it never crossed her mind that it probably didn’t want to stay in the small room by itself while she went about her day. She was already worried about so much; about it getting caught, or both of them getting caught, etc. But looking at it as it sat in the middle of the messy floor made Bennie change her mind. Even if she was worried about getting found out, she’d rather not leave them alone in her room for who knows how long, she decided to form a Plan B. Thinking fast, she grabbed her large red backpack from the side of her desk and put it in front of the creature, who looked at it confused.

“Okay, I just realized that maybe you being alone in here all day is a bad idea after the night you had. If you behave yourself then I’ll let you tag along in my bag. You have to promise not to interrupt me while I’m working, and... later on can I ask you some questions about yourself? I know you don’t think it’s any of my business but I don’t want to be completely ignorant, I want to help you out but in order to do so I need to know more about you.” She finished, squaring her shoulders and staring down at them. They in turn narrowed their eyes before forming legs and stood up, it’s form towering over her once more, it appeared agitated. Perhaps she had struck a nerve.

“... Very well, but We will only answer questions that We feel comfortable answering as long as you keep your promise from last night, deal?”

“Deal.” Bennie stuck her arm out to shake on it like last night, the creature immediatly formed itself arms and met her hand with theirs, a much better mimicked act compared to the first time they shook hands. Bennie smiled, realizing that wether it knew it or not, it was learning from her.

As Bennie got ready for the day, changing into her work clothes and grabbing the now occupied bag, she stopped for a moment at the top of the stairs when she got a glimpse of herself in the hallway mirror. Adjusting her red long-sleeved shirt with the blue ouroboros logo of the stores namesake and baggy black pants that, to her relief, hid the rather large bruise that began to creep up her leg. She then Glanced up briefly to look at her face.

She looked really tired, her grey eyes looked back at her from on top of bruised looking bags underneath them. Her short auburn hair with faint purple dye at the ends was mostly out of her face due to her favorite red headband she always wore. Her freckles cheeks stood out more than usual due to her pale face, maybe she was getting sick? Turning, she noted a small bruising cut near her temple from where she fell over the box, touching it didn’t hurt so she shrugged it off. Adjusting the bag, she made her way down the stairs towards where she could hear her Grandfather making breakfast.

Straining her head past the doorframe, she peeled into the kitchen where she could see Pops, who already had smeared flour spots in his bright pink ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron. Bennie noted the already huge stack of waffles and already set table, he’s been up for a while already.

“Good morning Pops.” She shouted, causing him to drop the egg he was holding in surprise, it splattered across the white tiled floor with a wet sound. Bennie smiled apologetically at him when he whirled around to glare at her. His eyes crinkling out of sight behind his messy peppermint hair as he smiled at her in greeting. Inwardly, Bennie felt the bag shift a bit against her back at the sudden loud noises that just occurred.

“Bennie! There you are my dear, are you ready to scavenge some more today? We’ll shelf the stuff you brought in yesterday after we eat!” He laughed, plopping down at the table with a hearty ‘thud’. Bennie quickly followed suit, taking off the bag and leaning it against her legs. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the corner of the bag lift up by itself, small blue eyes staring back out at her. She grabbed a fork and shoveled a good portion of waffles into her plate, scooping on butter and powdered sugar meticulously as her grandfather rambled about the things that needed to be don’t that day. A thought suddenly occurred to her.

“Hey Pops? Did you hear of anything... weird happening last night on the news?” She asked, shoveling a rather big piece of waffle into her mouth. Pops in turn looked up at her with a confused look, before propping his elbows up on the table and resting his head on his hands in thought.

“ Well... some teens last night said they were nearly attacked by some weird guy in a suit, besides that, not really. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason, I was just thinking about stuff. Anyway, what time do you want me to head out today?” She evaded. Looking down at the bag again, which was now closed. How did no one else see the meteor crash last night? How was that possible? Pops spoke up, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“Ah, you can go be the Laura Croft after we open shop, I will only ask you to come back here earlier than usual today... the guy. That attacked those kids hasn’t been caught yet. You know how I worry Ben.” He trailed off, a fatherly concern shadowing his face. Bennie averted her eyes, she always felt guilty whenever she made him worry.

“I will, I didn’t want to stay out long today anyway, I know how hard it is on you watching the shop by yourself during this season.” She mumbled, finishing her plate. Pops stood up, grabbing both plates and turning around to clean them in the sink. Quickly, Bennie grabbed as many waffles as she could in both hands and shoved them into the bag, seeing orange ripples quickly engulf the food as she snapped the bag shut, sitting up quickly and pretending nothing was out of the ordinary as Pops turned around to set the plates down again. Raising an eyebrow at the much smaller pile of food in the middle of the table. Bennie stood, grabbing her bag gently and walking over to her door which led to he shop, looking at Pops with a smile.

“I should go get the things ready, do you need any help?” She asked politely. Pops shook his head, already following her towards the door. 

“Nah, lets do this now before the sun comes up. Then if you want I guess you can leave before I open shop. That way you can get back earlier and help out when it gets busier.” She nodded in agreement before opening the door that led into the old shop.

‘Pops Shops of Ouroboros’ as it was named, was an old family owned antique shop of oddities and Knick knacks. It was one of the more popular stores in SilverSurvey due to the authentic items brought in from the atmospheric unnamed woods only the bravest people would venture into. Bennie didn’t consider herself brave, just ‘lucky’, since she had a gift of finding things that would be considered ‘impossible’. Yesterday’s findings were no different, she placed the whalebone and yellow magnetic rocks on one of the shelves labeled ‘whatever’ while Pops sorted through the other things, placing them in versions aisles and figuring out prices of small paper tags. 

After setting up shop, cleaning off various artifacts and what-nots, Pops gave the signal to open up shop. Waving Bennie out the door with a hearty wave and thumbs up for good luck. She waved in return, walking backwards with her bag until suddenly bumping into something huge, nearly falling over. Turning around, she looked up to see a rather decrepit looking man with shaggy short hair haunted looking eyes. Bennie stepped back, nervous and embarrassed, feeling her bag shake slightly. Could they tell when she got stressed?

“Um... sorry mister. Excuse me.” She said shyly, scooting past him and with one arm bent back to hold her bag, looked back up at him when he didn’t respond right away.

“Sorry.” He said flatly, running a hand over his stubby face. Bennie noted a horizontal pink scar that ran just over the bridge of his nose, as well as the badge that was hidden in his sweater that was shown when he raised his arm. She looked up at him, confused. He was a cop? She knew most of the cops from her town pretty well since it was a small place, since he was unfamiliar Bennie figured he was either new, or from out of town. Bennie turned to glance at Pops, who was quietly watching this exchange from the door. Seeing the look on her face, he smiled reassuringly as it to say ‘I got this’ before turning to greet the stranger, who was now walking towards the store, away from Bennie and her bag that tremored against her. Bennie only paused for a moment, unsure, enforce shrugging and turned to continue her walk to the trail she took into the woods.

After a few moments of nothing except for the sounds of crunching leaves and occasional birdsong, her companion finally spoke.

“Thank you for earlier, those ‘waffles’ improved our energy stash very well. We suppose, after all the things you’ve done for us, we one you one.” 

“Oh, you’re welcome! But you don’t owe me anything silly.” She chuckled, the bag seemed to get heavier and a shadow passed overhead, looking up, she saw a series of long snake heads had risen out of her bag to look at her and their surroundings from various angles. They walked like that for a while till suddenly one of the heads pressed into the bruise on her leg, causing her to cry out and pitch forward. Her fall was interrupted by think tendrils that had shot out from the bag, which then proceded to gently set her down until she was seated on the dirt.

“What the hell was that for!?” She yelled, moving to massage the wound with her hands as the heads seemed to melt onto the ground, growing in size till multiple upper bodies with heads were huddled a few inches in front of her.

“We apologize, We had suspected last night that your injury was worse than what you were letting on, and we saw today that you were avoided putting as much pressure on it as your other foot. Does it really hurt so badly?”

“I...” she started before finding her pant leg being lifted up suddenly by two sets of arms to reveal her injury. She hissed in a breath at the sight, the bruise was bigger than it was earlier, the skin was slightly swelled and so purple in places it looked almost black. It didn’t feel as bad as it looked but she couldn’t help but tear up a bit when it suddenly brushed over it with its fingers.

“Yes it hurts! Don’t do that, I can still walk so it’s fine! Now let go!” She exclaimed, moving to pull her leg away from their strange hands that kept touching her ankle. As she started to tug her leg away, it made a noise that she could only describe as exasperation. To her surprise it held her leg in place with one set of arms, the other two hands hovering just over the injury as they turned to look at her with narrowed eyes.

“Don’t ever speak of what I am about to do, Understand? This’ll make us even.”

“What are you talking abo-AAH!” Without warning, the creatures fingers seemed to stab into her leg, Bennie screamed in shock. But To her surprise, it didn’t hurt, the sensation of something bubbly and warm teased up her leg. She sighed, it felt really good for some reason, what were they doing? Her question was shortly answered however, when her leg seemed to glow slightly from within. Her eyes widened with amazement when the bruise started to lighten to at first a purple, then a blue, and finally a pink as it seemed to disappear. Her mouth hung open as the Creature removed its hands, staring down at her with faces filled with wariness and anticipation. She realized that they were waiting for her to say something.

“Um... thank you?”

“You’re welcome. Like, we said, were even now.”

“... What are you?” There, she said it, the question that had been plaguing her mind ever since their first encounter. The creatures heads snapped up, freezing in place as if she struck it. But she didn’t apologize just yet in case she said something insulting, instead she focused her gaze onto each face with an intense look, letting them know that she wouldn’t budge until they answered her. They seemed to glance at one another briefly, before turning back to her with similar intense faces, mimicking hers.

“Like you’ve already guessed, we're an ‘alien’. To be more specific, we are A complex Hydra Cnidarian organism with hive mind intelligence and shared personality. We are technically multiple organisms, but interwoven together in such a way we might as well be the same. As you can see we can easily change our shape and physical mass with ease, but the act of merely existing has proved very hard for us. We were constantly endangered on our home planet due to our regenerative properties. We’ve been hunted our whole lives by countless creatures and societies who sought to control or test us. We came here as a last resort of sorts, this planet if off limits pretty much, no planet governments are allowed to interfere with this planets development in anyway whatsoever.” It stated, it’s voice keeping the same soft raspy monotone tenor it used with every time it spoke. 

Bennie stared at them, not knowing what to say, they spoke with such calmness, everything it just said was so matter-of-fact, even though a lot of what it just said sounded so ludacris, a rare creature of space using Earth as a hideout? Somehow being able to heal not only it’s own injuries, but other creatures as well. She found herself looking back at them in a different light as she tried to put herself in their shoes.

 

“That must have been lonely.”

 

“Excuse me?” It said after a long moment of silence, Bennie heard a shocked tone imbeddedin the question, the first emotional response she’s gotten from it. She continued;

“I mean, you’ve been hunted your whole life? That’s gotta suck. I mean, if you didn’t have any friends in that time, If everyone you’ve ever met either wanted to capture, kill, or sell you to someone else who would do the same thing, that’s really upsetting, I’m not joking when I say that’s the loneliness thing I’ve ever heard.” She mumbled awkwardly as she rubbed the spot where the bruise was, not really sure if she should be saying this since she didn’t know how they would react. She dared a look back up at them, startled to see the almost sad expressions on their faces as they absorbed what she said.

“We suppose it is...” they said finally much to Bennie’s releif. She was glad they weren’t mad at her observation about them. Her eyes widened when she felt something smooth brush against her temple, seeing that one of the figures had its hand on the spot where she was scratched last night, the bubbly sensation she got indicated that they healed that one too. She lifted a hand up to her cheek, accidentally brushing over their hand, which flinched back at the contact. Rubbing her cheek as he bubbly sensation receded, she smiled up at them as she stood, offering her hand.

“Well... I guess we are even now, like you said. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.” They said, merging into one form and taking her hand to stand. Placing the stone back on, she turned to look around.

“Over there by the brook is a pretty good spot to look for stuff, sometimes things from deeper in the woods wash up on the sides.” She said, changing the topic to something more light, the creatures eyes squinted upwards in what she assumed was a smile before it receded back into the bag. Humming, she grabbed the bags straps with both hands and started to walk onwards. Happy that, at the very least, they both got to know a bit more about each other.  
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Back at the shop, Pops crossed his arms as he looked down at the scruffy looking man in front of him. He had introduced himself as Detective Aiden Watch, Private paranormal Investigator who just arrived in town and already had several cases. Pops always hated cops, he could tell he probably wouldn't have liked the man if they had met in any other scenario, but considering the situation, he figured he could keep the observations about the man to himself until Bennie got back. She was acting a little off today, but nothing he was too concerned about.

Detective Watch lit up the second cigarette he’s had since he’s been here, using a water bottle as an ash tray. Pops eyes narrowed slightly at the sight, he had lost plenty of friends to lung cancer back in the day, and despite his ever so subtle hints to indicate the ‘No Smoking’ sign that hung on one of the walls, the man made no indication that he saw or cared. Instead, sliding over a copied illustrated photo description of a strange man wearing a large set of ski resort goggles, it was the man that had brutally attacked those two kids last nightly by the park near the shop. 

“Are you absolutely positive you’ve never seen this man?” Watch said in a hoarse tone, rubbing at his temple as he looked up at the rather intimidating man before him.

“Can’t say I have, and I should know, people who live in this town tend to recognize each other.” He said flatly, making sure to keep a serious tone to keep the man on his toes, Pops was worried the man was about to fall asleep right there in the shop.

“And what about your grandchild? This...Benjamin Ouroboros that lives with you as you said, he hasn’t seen anything?” He huffedas he looked through his residential papers scattered in front of him on the table. Smoke hitting Pops in the chest as he quietly held his breath till it faded. Anger flared in his chest, knowing how much Bennie hated being called that, due to the rather unfortunate masculine name her parents gave her, she was often mistaken for being a boy when she was younger, something she was very self conscious about to this day.

“SHE didn’t see anything either, Bennie went to bed as soon as I did last night after we closed up shop.” He huffed. Watch raised a questioning eyebrows up at him when he finally realized he struck a nerve. For some reason the guy just rubbed Pops the wrong way.

“She? Was it that girl who was here earlier?” Watch asked, being more careful with his wording.

“Yes, she helps out around the shop too.”

“I see, can I come by later to ask her myself?”

“We’re usually pretty busy, I’m not sure when she’ll be back from her supply run.”

“No worries, I’m not that busy, here.” Watch slid over a flimsy business card, looking around the room with a rather strange intensity.

“Is everything you sell here from the woods?”

“Yes, in fact, Bennie’s the one who usually gets the good stuff, she’s got a knack for finding the more ‘Authentic’ things.” Pops said, suddenly worrying that maybe he said to much. He couldn’t help but talk the ear off of anyone who asked about his granddaughter.

“That’s... interesting. Anyway, I’ll be back around noon, be sure to hang that picture up by the door so people can see it please.” He practically ordered as he was already walking out the door. Pops looked up, surprised at how eager the man was to get out of the store, but shrugged it off, the guy was pretty weird anyway so he wasn’t too insulted by it. Walking around the cashier desk, he grabbed some tape and did as the man asked. Not because he was asked to, but because he wanted to help put the word out and hopefully bring the man to justice. Stepping back, he looked at the illustration again.

The man was rather stoic looking from what he could see, the reflective goggles he wore his most of his features from view, but he had rather clean cut short hair swept to one side with some stubble. From what Pops heard, he had attacked some drunken teens out in the woods pretty badly, ranting about finding a ‘orange alien criminal’ or something. Pops figured he was probably high or something. Shivering suddenly, he sat back down at the counter as the first wave of tourists and regulars started to trail in from outside.

As worried as he was about Bennie being out there while the strange man was loose, he knew she could handle herself. That girl had nerves of steel.


	4. Naming a Stranger

They were about two hours into their walk when Bennie decided it was about time to head back.

They hadn’t really talked much since the bruise incident, a small observation here or there about the scenery, Bennie taking momentary breaks to snap a few photos, and the occasional discovery of strange things they’d come across along the path that she would pick up for potential things for the shop. Even if the conversation wasn’t really that meaningful, Bennie had to admit having some company while out here wasn’t all that bad.

It wasn’t until they began to head back that the Alien began to ask some questions of their own.

“So... What is the purpose of this?” They suddenly asked when Bennie was making her way over a large fallen tree in their path, she looked over her shoulder at the small manifested head with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Collecting these items, what is the point of taking things with no use or meaning for the sole purpose of giving it to others?” It quipped, resting its head lightly on her shoulder with wide blue eyes. Bennie couldn’t believe how quickly she was getting used to having it around, even enjoying its strange company at times.

“Well... I’m not sure if you’d understand it, but it’s kind of my job. I go out and collect things that I feel draw attention, or things that I know people would like in order to sell it to them and earn money so I can get things for myself. And besides, it’s not like the things I collect don’t have a purpose, what becomes of them is up to the people who buy it.” She answered after a moment of thought, it was a dumbed down version of why she does it, mainly for the adventure and her eventual freedom from the dying town, but that wasn’t really something she wanted to talk about just yet, in fact, she had some questions of her own.

“Anyway, there was something I wanted to ask you too, back there at home, you seemed to... react whenever I got nervous, how did you know what I was feeling?”

“That’s... a very complicated answer, to put it in simple terms we can feel when your emotions shift, we can’t get an exact read, or read minds, but We can tell that if the heart goes faster, it usually means nervousness or some form of excitement.” 

“So, you’re like a lie detector in that sense?”

“We suppose so, though it’s much more... personal than that, it’s not something we like to discuss.”

“I see...” she trailed off, not really sure what to think of that. Personally she had no reason to lie to them, but the thought that they’d even be able to tell if she or someone else did was both an intriguing and terrifying thought. She decided that for the moment she could store the thought to dwell on later, right now she had to focus on following the hidden trail back home. Since not many people came here, she had to put her own trail markers like stickers and colored rocks out to find her way back. The particular one she was looking for was a small ladybug sticker on the side of a large tree stump, which would indicate that she wasn’t far from the shop. Upon locating it, she began to head back before momentarily stoping when something occurred to her, she abruptly sat on the stump and put the bag on her lap, several heads emerged to look out at her in confusion.

“Say, why don’t I give you all a name? Something better than just ‘stranger’?” She said softly, avoiding its widening eyes when she started to feel a bit self conscious. She was a bit embarrassed that her question didn’t come out like she thought it would, it came across as if she were naming a pet, like a fish or a dog, not something that was like a person.

“That... would be majorly unwise on your part, we’ve heard that humans get more easily attached to things once they give it a name. We no not want you attached to us.” Bennie felt a bit hurt by that for some reason, even If it was a bad idea, they didn’t have to dismiss it like they did. She put on a dramatically hurt expression in order to hide her inner reaction.

“Well, like it or not it’s a bit too late for that, I mean, I gave you food, a place to stay, and even let you tag along instead of staying inside all day. You in turn have responded to my questions and even healed my injury. In my opinion that’s what ‘attached’ people do. Besides, you call me by my name all the time, why can’t I call you something?” She didn’t mean for that last bit to come off so defensive either, what was wrong with her today? The creature didn’t seem to know how to respond to that either, they just looked at her with that same bewildered expression they’ve had since they met. With a huff, Bennie slung the bag over her shoulders and, while avoiding eye contact, kept walking until the shop was within view.

“Spore.” It spoke quietly as it receded back into the bag.

“What?”

“Call us Spore, it seems like the most appropriate name for us. We needed a moment to think about it...” Bennie was shocked, she wasn’t expecting anymore out of the earlier conversation. She found herself grinning as she reached behind her to give her bag a reassuring pat.

“Well ‘Spore’, it’s nice to properly meet you now.” The bag seemed to hum in response to that, but Bennie was already too close to the shop to openly question it, already seeing a growing number of people trickling into the shop. She guessed it was around 10am at that point based on the suns low position. Weaving her way through the customers and aisles, she made her way over to where her grandfather was uncharacteristically glooming at the cashier, he didn’t seem to notice her.

“Heya Pops, what’s eating at you?” She asked, leaning against the counter to better read his face under his eyebrows. He seemed to snap out of whatever he was dwelling on, he sat up and beamed back at her with his usual cheeriness. Bennie didn’t quite but it as sincerity, but she knew he didn’t like to talk about things that upset him, she learned that the hard way once when she asked why he and her father stopped talking to each other a few years back. He was holed up in his room for two days before coming back out like nothing was wrong, Bennie had never felt as bad as she did then when she saw the look on his face.she smiled back at him and put her apron on from under the counter on her side, making sure to put the bag back on when she was done.

“Sorry Bennie, that guy that came in earlier put me in a bad mood, that’s all.” He then proceeded to wave in his usual friendly way at a group of college kids that just walked in, causing the girls in the group to giggle to each other as they began perusing the store. 

“The guy I bumped into? What’d he say that got you so upset?”

“Nothing much, the guy was a PI, a pretty rude one too, he’s stopping by later to talk to you.”

“Why?” She noticed that the college kids started slowly making their way over to them, there were six of them in all, three guys and three girls who looked like they just came right out of one of those awful football movies. They looked completely out of place in here except for one of them, a somewhat familiar-looking boy with curly black hair and glasses who looked like he’d seen better days.

Bennie noted that the boy in question had a pretty bad bruise and a couple of bandages on the right side of his face. She raised an eyebrow at this, figuring that he must have been in a pretty bad accident. It was when they started loudly joking and horsing around that She and Pops exchanged a look, they knew this type of group pretty well, they might try to start something to look cool in front of their friends. Bennie shifted a bit so she was leaning back against the desk, crossing her arms and watching them out of the corner of her eye. Behind her she felt the bag squirm and hoped Pops didn’t notice.

It was when they were just starting to walk over to them that Bennie realized who the guy was. It was Liam Nover, a quiet kid who Bennie used to hang out with in high school when they were both in the photography club, She liked him just fine, but it was one of those friendships that ended after graduation, like so many do. Still, she was glad to see him, he seemed to feel the same way when he noticed her and beamed back. He ignored the others and high fived her like an old friend,which Bennie figured they were.

“Bennie! How are you these days? These are my friends Jason and Emmet. The ladies are Rachel, Charlotte, and Trish.” He said as he hooked an arm gingerly around Trish, who looked at him like he was the Queen of Scots. They all seemed paired off with each other. Trish and Liam, Jason and Charlotte, Emmet and Rachel, who were looped around each other like a bunch of seahorses. Bennie didn’t bother remembering faces, all of them besides Liam looked like they’d rather be somewhere else. 

“Nice seeing you Liam, I’m good. What’s been going on with you?” She said, pointing at her cheek to mirror his own for the unasked question. The one called Trish put a hand on his shoulder while the others looked away, uncomfortable. Liam’s own face seemed to darken a bit before answering, staking Trish off rather abruptly;

“We had a bit of a scuffle last night, some crazy guy in a suit cornered me Trish and Emmet when we were walking through the park to get back to the dorm. He got me pretty good before Emmet pushed him off while Trish was gawking and he ran into the woods. Guy was ranting About aliens and stuff, seemed pretty high if you ask me. Emmett got me to the hospital and cops came and took our report.” He rubbed a hand through his hair, seemingly embarrassed about it. Pops sucked in a breath.

“So that assault that made it into the news this morning was about you my boy?” He said with such an openly sad expression on his face that everyone else’s faces went red. Liam continued;

“Yeah, that’s actually why we’re here, my girl Trish wants me to get some witchy stuff for protection and healing, she’s into that kinda dumb stuff and we got some time to kill.” At the mention of her name, Trish looked up at Bennie with a sheepish smile, making Bennie immediatly decide she liked this girl. She didn’t like how Liam talked about his girlfriend, making fun of her honest concern for him. He’s sure changed a lot since high school, she thought before giving Trish a quick smile in return. 

“Well, the charm stuff is over there to your left, and it’s not ‘witchy’, different stones have different compositions that people used to believe-“ 

“Yeah, we’ll just take this.” Jason interrupted as he plopped down a healing charm. Bennie bristled at that, she really didn’t like being talked over, but she held her tongue for the time being, knowing that if she talked back she wouldn’t hear the end of it from Pops. Liam looked for a moment as if he were going to apologize to her, but seemed to change his mind as he forked over the cash and they all made their way out the door. Only Trish turned back, looking like she was as peeved as Bennie felt. She forced a smile and waved at Trish, who mirrored her gesture and finally left. Bennie breathed deep, noticing that the sudden gloomy atmosphere had lifted. She turned to count the money when she noticed Pops looking at her.

“Friend from school?”

“We hung out at our photo club, I thought we got along just fine but... I guess not. He’s not like how I remember him being...” 

“Hmm... let me tell you something Ben.” Pops reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. Bennie looked over at his hand, a  
Bit nervous he would touch the bag. When she looked back to his face, she was surprised to see his serious look back for the second time that day.

“Sometimes... people don’t always turn out the best, people can change for better or worse over the years but you can still rely on them to teach you about how you’d like to change yourself. Take Liam for example, you had fun with him in the past, but now you’re strangers to each other. Even though I can tell your upset, what did you think when you saw him and his friends?”

“I... I thought about his girlfriend mostly, I liked her and I felt bad for her when he talked to her like that. She seemed like the only one in the group who was decent, if I was still in college I would probably be friends with her...”

“That’s good Bennie, but remember that that girl has her own decisions to make about him, even if it takes months or years I don’t see them staying together long, she’ll be better off without him once she’s brave enough to see him for what he is. But it’s not your problem Bennie, everyone has their own problems to deal with, alone or not.” 

“I guess so...” She said before more customers came in, signaling the conversation was over. She didn’t like the bitter taste the thought left in her mouth, but she knew Pops was right in his own way about leaving things alone. She didn’t exist to solve other people problems like her parents thought. She was just... herself, still, she had a heavy feeling in her gut about the interaction for the next hour until her noon break rolled around. By then it had left the main parts of her brain in favor of more pressing issues. Sneaking into the closet break room, she grabbed a sandwich off the upper shelf and began to eat, splitting it in half for Spore who gobbled it up greedily. 

They sat for a few minutes and made small conversation, both of them knew they couldn’t talk louder than whispers in case someone outside heard them. But to Bennie, eating with someone without worrying about awkward silence was surprisingly relaxing. Her fondness for them only seemed to grow the more they talked, Bennie felt that this is what it must be like to have a friend, or in this case; ‘friends’.

When she came back out of the break room, she spotted the familiar tired looking man she bumped into earlier hanging out around where Pops was, lighting a cigar and looking around at the other customers, almost like he was daring them to point out the nonsmoking sign. Holding her breath momentarily, she made her way over to them, holding the bag straps tightly with one hand. The way the air was hanging heavily with negativity, as well as the look that passed between the man and Pops made her feel like she was walking the plank of a pirate ship to drown and be eaten by sharks. 

“Hello Sir, my grandfather told me you wanted to speak to me.” She said in her ‘please the customer’ voice, Pops stifled a laugh by disguising it as a cough while the man seemed to study her, scrutinizing her appearance and bag she was clutching so hard her knuckles were white. Finally, he seemed to be satisfied with what he saw and began to introduce himself;

“Hello there, I’m Detective Watch, Private investigator, not exactly a cop so you can relax a bit. I just came into this town because I’ve been researching the odd goings-ons that seem to happen here for several years now. I’ll be staying here indefinitely so get used to seeing me.” He took a drag from his cigarette before continuing, she glanced a look at Pops to see how well he was tolerating the smoke, knowing how adverse he was to the stuff. For the moment he seemed fine.

“At the moment I’m investigating the strange man that attacked a group of college kids last night around 10pm just minutes away from this shop. I’m here because the perp was seen running in this direction, I would like to ask you a few questions regarding this man and if you knew anything about his where a-bouts.” Bennie had never heard the word ‘perp’ said in any conversation besides in film noir movies. She wondered if Watch was inspired by them to be what he is today. She bit back a smirk and answered mostly truthfully.

“I’m sorry but no, I went to bed shortly after P-I mean- my Grandfather did. I went through some of the days photos I took of the woods to sell later, then I went to bed.” She said. Adjusting her hold on the bag as he watched with the strangest look she’s ever seen on a cop. He leaned down suddenly to be eye level with her, making her cough slightly at the smoke that wafted into her face. She squinted at him through the haze to see his surprisingly green eyes, which were dulled earlier, now gleam with sudden interest.

“Photos? May I see? You may have taken photos with clues in them that could help with the investigation.” Bennie felt herself pale. The Photos. The ones she took last night of the dark woods and meteor trail she found. If he saw that he would know she was lying about going to bed, he would ask her questions about the trail and if she couldn’t come up with something quick he would know something was up. She opened her mouth to speak when Pops interjected, much to her releif.

“I’m afraid she can’t do that Detective, she sells photos professionally and is under no obligation to show it, unless you have a warrant?” He said the last part in such a way that made it clear that Pops knew he didn’t have one, somehow. Watch turned to glare at him before looking back to her. 

“What’s in the bag Benjamin?” He demanded in a cold authoritative tone. Bennie would have been frozen in place if she hadn’t been seized with as much anger as she did then, she heard Pops gasp quietly before she went off.

“The name’s BENNIE Sir, I don’t need to show you anything if you do not have a warrant, you can’t smoke in here either.”

“Listen carefully Kid, I can get permission to-“

“Permission? From Who? Sheriff Larry? He would sooner grow gills and move to the ocean than out a member of his town under suspicion for something as silly as photographs. You’ve only been here one day, what makes you think you have the respect of anyone in this town yet? No one knows you, no one cares to know you if you keep this up, And besides.” She yells, pointing a finger at his cigar.

“Like you said; You’re not exactly a cop, you don’t have the PERMISSION or authority to give us orders on your first day.” Bennie realized Spore said something similar to her when they first met, she felt a bit of pride knowing they must have realized it too when she felt the bag squirm once more.

A stunned silence hung in the air for a few moments, Pop’s mouth was agape for a moment before he beamed with pride at her. The few customers who were there seemed rooted to the spot in a similar way Watch was. As for him, his eyes were bugged out in shock as he looked at her, seeing her in a new light, before abruptly bellowing into a fit of laughter. He had to hold his stomach after a few moments when he started to calm down his outburst until it was a series of chuckles. Shaking his head as he hiccuped, he tapped out his cigar on the table before smiling at her with a softened look.

“Oh man, you’ve got guts kid, you got more fire in you than a volcano about to explode, I got your type pegged down wrong from the start. Here.” He handed her his card before walking towards the door. Bennie couldn’t move, she didn’t expect him to react like THAT. She and Pops watched him open the door before turning to look at Bennie again.

“I’ll be seeing you two around, you’ve definitely got my interest now like it or not. Especially you, Bennie, I feel like you know more than you’re letting on.” And with a wink, he left.

Bennie and Pops looked at each other, shocked. Before erupting into their own laughter as the stress left the room and the day quickly returned to normal. A larger influx of people came in after hearing the gossip about Bennie’s encounter with Watch, She just smiled and went about her day, restocking shelves and cleaning up messes. Despite everything that’s happened that day, she was in a good mood due to having an outlet for her stress earlier. Much to her relief, Pops didn’t ask about the bag at all that day, it wasn’t until they closed up shop that they spoke to each other for the first time since Watch came in earlier that day.

“Hey Bennie, that was pretty strange earlier huh? That poor rookie didn’t know what hit him.” He joked as they made their way up the stairs. Bennie looked back at him cheerfully, already looking forward to going back to her room so she and Spore could rest.

“Yeah, I don’t know what came over me, to tell you the truth I’ve been pretty out of it today. I’m probably just tired.” She stared as she yawned. When they started to part ways in the hallway, Pops stopped her suddenly, pulling her into a hug. Surprised, she hugged him back and hoped Spore was okay during the bear hug. Pulling away, Pops looked down at her with a look that made Bennie feel as if he knew ‘Everything’ that’s happened so far. 

“I know somethings going on with you Ben, all day you’ve been acting... weird I guess. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to but I’m always here if you need an ear.” He sounded so much like a father. Bennie’s heart panged as she imagined what it would have been like with him as her father. She would have ended up in a much different situation if that were the case. She smiled up at him sadly, turning to go back to her room.

“Thank you Pops, I appreciate that. Goodnight!” She yelled as she quickly slid into her room, plopping her bag on the bed as she laid down next to it, groaning as she stretched out her back in releif.

“That was too close Spore, that guy was really perceptive.”

“It’s no matter now Bennie, you managed to get us out of that situation quite nicely.” Bennie turned her head to look at the two human forms it chose this time to appear as. She smiled at them as they ‘sat’ on the side of the bed. 

“We must say Bennie, that anger and wit you showed earlier was... impressive. We were surprised you were capable of such manipulation of speech.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t think I can talk my way out of stuff? Have you met me? I’m a pro” She joked, Spore seemed to catch her sarcasm and vibrated in a way that seemed like a laugh.

“Indeed we have, you’re just full of surprises to us.”

“Aww thanks. Looks like I’m growing on you too.” She laughed quietly into the pillow, calm quiet washing over them before Bennie felt a pressure on her shoulder where Pops comforted her earlier. Looking up she saw the feminine figure nearest to her had leaned down more to look at her. She realized they must have wanted to ask her something.

“What is it Spore?” 

“Earlier, with that ‘man’ with the spiced fire, he called you something that made you react strongly. Why did ‘Benjamin’ upset you so much?” She turned to her side, searching their faces, this was... difficult for her to talk about, the only ones who knew her real name was Pops, Her parents, and now Detective Watch.

“Benjamin is... my real name. Before I was born my parents decided that they wanted a boy ore than anything in the world, when I came out they were so disappointed. They didn’t really accept it so they just gave me a boys name, raised me as a boy, made me look like a boy, etc. it wasn’t until middle school that I found out the truth when we started to learn about anatomy in school, and I confronted them about it. They got... so angry at me... I wasn’t allowed to do a lot of things for a while until Pops stepped in and knocked some sense into them. I was allowed to express myself the way I wanted to, I was bullied of course, but a lot happier. The only thing they wouldn’t let me change was my name, so I just go by Bennie or Ben, it’s easier.” 

“Then... when I dropped out of college, they got so angry at me they just... kicked me out of the house, saying that they put up with me long enough and if I wasn’t going to make myself useful, they would rather have no child than a daughter.” Bennie whispered as she started to choke up, there was a lot more to the story of course, but there were things she couldn’t handle still, the wounds were still fresh to her. Spore looked down at her for a long while after that. Keeping their hand on her shoulder to mimic Pops gesture earlier. She felt comforted by it regardless of how awkward the position was, she could tell they were trying their best.

“We don’t really understand much of what you have told us. Even before coming to this world as we were researching it, we didn’t understand a lot of Human customs, why things are color coded and other such nonsense is useless information to us if we wish to survive. But to us, you are ‘Bennie’, nothing more, nothing less. We simply view you as the one who saved us from an unknown and dangerous world we couldn’t even begin to understand. The fact you are clearly more kind than your bearers proves that you are your own self. Your ‘Pops’ seems to agree with that fact as well, we see it in how he looks at you that he is incredibly proud of you.” Spore finished, looking at her to watch her reactions. Bennie herself found that she had started crying, she rubbed her wet cheeks as she chuckled sadly. 

“You’re too nice Spore. I don’t know how anyone would want to hurt you.” Laughing, she sat up and pulled them into a hug with one arm each. They went rigid immediatly under her touch, slimy skin almost scalding her. When she didn’t let go, they cooled down and in turned hugged her back briefly before shrinking back into the bag.

“Goodnight Bennie.” 

She looked at the bag beside her on the bed, pulling it closer to her as she pulled on the blankets. She was surprisingly touched at how much they’ve gone out of their way to comfort her over the past 24 hours, It felt like much longer to her. Smiling, she closed her eyes and held onto the bag as she began to drift to sleep.

“Goodnight Spore.”


	5. Closed Heart Open Mind

The next few days passed with ease for all of them once they got used to the routine.

They'd start and end the same with relative boredom. They’d wake up and eat with Pops, open the shop, go out into the woods and get things to sell. Go back around noon and do work around the shop, then go to bed around 8 when they closed and hang out till they got tired. It wasn’t until the weekend that their scheduel was, thankfully, more open since the shop is closed on weekends. Bennie had planned a surprise trip into town so she could show Spore more of what the world she lived in was like. She wanted to get them some things they see in town that they like so they’d feel more at home in the room they shared.

Bennie awoke as soon as the suns rays reached the window, the light hitting her roughly in the face, making her squint angrily at the shades she forgot to put down over the window last night. Sitting up, she yawned as she rubbed at her eyes and looked around her room for her ‘friends’. To her surprise she found Spore already up and was simultaneously looking through photos on her desk and sitting at the foot of her bed with two main segregated forms. Both were humanoid, one with long hair and another with short spiky hair. She wondered how they picked their forms, did each individual mass have awareness? If so then what happens when it has only one form? How many ‘heads’ could they create? 

Snapping out of her thoughts, she focused her gaze to the one on her bed that was now looking at her strangely, which isn’t all that unusual for them since they always looked at her like that. Over the course of the week she was starting to learn to read their expressions much better. It was mostly in the eyes, but if they got angry or excited enough their skin seemed to darken and was hot to the touch. The one she was looking at at the moment was slightly darker around the chest area with sad looking eyes, she deduced that they seemed... anxious.

“What’s wrong?” Bennie asked as she leaned forward on the bed to lightly tough Spores manifested arm which was gripping the sheet so hard it looked like it would rip. The Spore at the desk walked over and sat next to its counterpart, silently melding against it until their form merged from the hip down. They didn’t respond right away, instead reaching over and gently tracing the hand Bennie placed on them with their spindly thin fingers, she couldn’t help but squirm a bit when they turned over her hand to touch her palm gingerly, the feathery touches tickled a bit. 

“You did not awake at the usual time, we were starting to get worried that you were dying.” They said with their usual hushed tone. Bennie bit back a laugh at that, this was not the first time they thought she was dying. The other night she fell asleep at the desk instead of the bed, only to be harshly awoken when Spore started shaking her so hard she fell of the chair. She had then explained to them that humans can’t usually control when they sleep, or for how long, only that if she did do that, not to wake her unless it was an emergency. The fact that she wasn’t shook like a rag doll today showed to her that they at the very least listened to what she said last time. Smiling, she closed her hand over the one that was currently exploring hers and gave it a comforting squeeze.

“No I wasn’t dying, I just got to sleep in today because we don’t have work. Thank you for not waking me up like last time.”

“Ah, this is the ‘weekend’ correct? You said you wished to do something different today since we are free, what did you have in mind?”

“It’s a surprise silly, you and I are going somewhere a bit different today.”

“We... don’t like surprises.”

“You’ll like this, trust me.” Bennie smiled as she let go of their hand and stood up to get ready. Picking her more casual red shirt, dark red sweatshirt, and jeans instead of her usual work attire. Spore returned into the bag when she started getting changed, as per usual. She was strangely touched at their curtesy, even if they didn’t understand why she got flustered, they still gave her privacy when she used the bathroom or changed for the day, they were strangely polite when they weren’t being weird. When she was done getting dressed, she noticed the lack of pens and snacks on her desk. She turned to glare at Spore, who was now back out in their chosen two forms. Ones face averted their gaze while the other looked at her innocently.

“Spore... did you eat my pens again?”

“...No”

“I know you did, who else could have come in here? The snacks for today are gone too. Is that why you were at my desk when I woke up? Tell the truth please.”

“....We’re Sorry... we wanted to wake you so we could go downstairs and eat but since you were still asleep and we couldn’t wait.” They said sadly, making their form slightly smaller in shame. Bennie knew she should have been angry, those were expensive pens after all, but the fact that they waited for her to wake up even though they were hungry made her feel guilty for sleeping in. 

“It’s okay Spore, I’m not that upset about it, they’re just pens. If you’re really hungry during the night you can wake me up okay? Consider that a type of emergency.”

“Thank you.” They seemed to relax a bit at that, regaining their previous size as they seemed to relax. She wondered why they seemed so timid most the time, and why they were so worried about her being mad at them about little things they did. Bennie thought back to their comment about how they’ve been hunted their whole lives... they must have been hurt a lot too, even if they could heal, that type of incident can scar a persons psyche. She knew that all too well. The thought made her heart pang and she had to look away suddenly as she got herself under control so Spore wouldn’t get worried. They seemed to sense her distress however.

“What’s wrong Bennie?”

“Oh it’s...nothing, I was just thinking about how similar we are.”

“How are we similar?” They stood up and glided over to where she was standing, eyes filled with concern. Bennie shook her head quickly before smiling and grabbing the bag from the bed,avoiding their question.

“No reason, are you ready? Today should be a fun day, let’s not worry about things from the past right now. Okay?” She walked over to the door and waited for them. Spore studied her for a moment, before nodding and pulling their mass back into the bag where the meteor was placed against her back. Bennie felt the bag stretch and warm momentarily, before shrinking back to its normal size once Spore was settled down. 

As they walked downstairs, they could already hear Pops messing about in the kitchen already making breakfast. Bennie opened the door to be greeted with the sugary smell of cinnamon rolls and apple cider. Pops loved to go all out on the weekends, Bennie felt that if he really wanted to he could just open up a bakery if the shop ever failed. She smiled when she saw him near the sink wearing his favorite pink apron, she leaned against the doorframe and waited for him to notice her. When he did he broke out into a huge goofy grin. 

“Bennie! I was starting to think you were in a coma. Come in and eat some brunch with me before you go!” He tossed a roll at her as he laughed. She fumbled a bit with it before putting it in her bag for Spore, then sat down at the table and grabbed a couple more before chowing down greedily. Pops laughed before sitting down with two mugs of coffee for both of them. They didn’t talk about much, just small talk like the news and weather. Apparently it was supposed to rain later today.

“Any more news on the guy that’s been attacking people all week?” Bennie asked. The guy who attacked Liam and his friends was still on the loose, he had attacked five more people the last few days, but luckily no ones been killed yet.

“Nothing yet, another girl was attacked near the park, but that was it. Ben... be extra careful out there in town, don’t go anywhere where there isn’t people.”

“I won’t.”

Pops smiled sadly at her before shoving another roll into his mouth. Bennie knew he wasnt too worried about her, he knew she was smart enough to avoid trouble. They ate like that in relative silence before Bennie stood up to leave, not before grabbing four more sticky rolls and shoving them into her bag. Pops raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. Bennie was already making her way to the front door before he spoke;

“Hey Bennie, is there anything I should know about?”

She paused for a moment, the urge to tell him everything nearly overwhelming in that moment. She really wanted to tell him about everything, but she had made a promise. So, through gritted teeth she spoke;

“No Pops, everything’s fine I promise. I’ll see you later okay?” And with that, she left the house, not waiting for him to respond.

 

The walk into town wasn’t that hard following the main road. Usually, you had to take a detour since trees made a habit of blocking the main ways into town from cars. But things like that were hardly the strangest part of living in SilverSurvey. For Bennie, it was the people. As she made her way down the sidewalk, she only had to make detour before reaching the first shop. A rather terrible Bakery owned by a couple who made a habit of divorcing every two years or so, their food tasted as bad as their marriage in her opinion. Even now as she made her way past their small shop she could hear them fighting inside. She picked up her pace and carried on.

The town houses were strange too, many were small and old, with chipped paint from years of neglect. If your house wasn’t connected to the main road you wouldn’t have a driveway, many people instead parked on the Main Street and walked back to their homes, sometimes walking for 5-10 minutes before reaching their houses. Bennie never understood why the town was so against making more streets, instead of having people rely on either having a guide or just knowing the area. 

The town itself had 5 main roads that connected to a large roundabout in the center in a star shape at the apex of a large valley, which is where most of the shops and homes were, the roads were all sloped, which became a huge hazard in the winter for most people when the roads iced over. Even though it was still only Fall, the roads had small patches of black ice that Bennie had to keep an eye out for as she descended into town. She could see her breath and her cheeks were stinging a bit from the cold already. They were still a ways out, she should have brought gloves or something, she thought bitterly to herself as she hugged herself to keep warm.

“Are you cold Bennie?” Spore asked suddenly.

“Yeah but I’ll live, we've got about a 5 minute walk from town if I jog.” She stuck her hands in her pockets and began to pick up her pace as a cold wind picked up, chilling her more. The nearest shop she could break at was a nice coffee shop about half a mile down the street, she was headed there before her hands suddenly felt warmth. Looking down, she saw two thin trails of orange that led down her arms into her pockets, she flexed her hands only to feel the slimy warmth that she associated with how Spore usually felt when she touched them in between her fingers. She felt her face get hot when she realized what They were doing. 

“Are you... holding my hands?”

“Yes, our body temperature is usually much warmer than yours, we figured this would help keep your core temperature, does this suffice?” Their voice was muffled from the bag slightly as they spoke, squeezing her hands slightly to warm them a bit better. Bennie was absolutely baffled by this, it was the first time they touched her first in all this time they’ve spent together. She found herself beaming a bit when the first shop came into view. She was incredibly touched by their gesture of trust for her by doing this. Since they weren’t doing it out of necessity, like with the bruise, it was because they wanted to.

“Y-yes, it suffices, Thank you very much Spore.” She felt them vibrate against her skin, their touch warmed a bit more as they hummed happily. Bennie noted that they always seemed to like it whenever she thanked them in some way. They always hummed or vibrated slightly whenever they were happy, like a cat purring. She grinned a bit, squeezing their hands back before pulling her hands out of her pockets to open the door to the coffee shop once they were close enough. She waited for Spore to let go and hide in the bag before opening the door to be greeted by the artificial warmth and smell of freshly ground coffee beans. 

The ‘Coffee Brine’ was a ‘lovely’ little off brand shop right outside of the town that only the locals seemed to enjoy. The tourists that were unlucky enough to wander into the store would be bombarded by the obnoxious music choice and incredibly weird and personal questions asked by the store owner Sud. He was a strange older gent in his 30’s who still had some sort of acne or pox scars around his cheeks, that, in addition to his strangely white hair, made him look like a ‘nut’ as the regulars would say. He had a cloudy eye that unnerved most people who came in. What was even stranger was his coffee, if it could even be called that. Even though Bennie always ordered the same brand, it tasted different each time, never bad though. She liked the quiet atmosphere here, one of the main reasons she always came in. Today Sud was in his usual rigid position when Bennie walked over to place her order. 

“Hey Sud, the usual please.” Sud nodded politely, turning around in his usual janky way as he began to make a fresh batch. As she waited Bennie surveyed the tables. There were barely any people in here today, just a lovely old couple who were always there, and...

“Oh no.” Bennie whispered under her breath, quickly turning back to the desk in the hopes of not being spotted. Sitting just across from her was Detective Watch, he was looking at a bunch of files and pictures on his desk with a drained expression, his head was in his hands as he focused hard on whatever it was he was doing. He’d only been to the shop twice since their initial incident, he just kind of wandered through the aisles and left, not really saying anything. This was the first time she’d seen him outside the shop, she really didn’t want to talk to him so instead just looked to the other side of the shop and kind of held still in the hopes he wouldn’t spot her in his peripherals.

After what felt like hours, Sud was finally done with her ‘drink’, she paid quickly and smiled politely before she turned to leave as quick as she could. Only to nearly spill the drink over herself when she almost bumped into the large mass that now blocked her way. She groaned inwardly, knowing who it was even before she looked up. Watch looked down at her with surprise once he seemed to recognize her. Either that or he was faking it to look less creepy. Bennie didn’t return his smile, instead, she gripped her drink tighter as she glared up at him. 

“Oh! Hello Ben- uh Bennie. I didn’t realize it was you. This is quite the coffee shop huh?”

“It sure is Detective.” She said bluntly, not wanting to instigate any more conversation. She noticed him glance at her bag like last time, but luckily didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he gestured over to the table he claimed with all his papers.

“So, we haven’t really talked since last time huh? Care to sit so I can properly apologize?”

“I can’t stay long-“

“That’s fine, this won’t take long.” He finished as he sat down, looking at her expectantly. Feeling trapped by social manners, Bennie slowly sat down with her drink and waited for him to speak. 

“I’m... sorry for my rude behavior the other day, I had just got off of a 24 hour flight and I was rather bitter, I had just arrived in the police station when they started telling me about my new assignment. I wasn’t able to properly rest properly before I arrived to your store that day, I was even more angry that I had to return there to further question you. I guess, what I’m trying to say is.. thanks for not putting up with my bullshit kid. It was my mistake” He leaned back in his chair and put up his hands up as if to say ‘I tried’. After a moment. Of mulling it over, Bennie spoke.

“Thank you for apologizing detective, I accept your apology. But please remember not to pull anything like that again while in our home. Pops isn’t as forgiving as I am.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind, you can go now.” He waved back at her as she stood to leave. She waved back briefly before continuing on her way to the main building. Even if the guy was a douche, she had to give him credit for apologizing, she didn’t like him still, but just a teeny bit of her admired him for biting the bullet. She sipped her drink, and continued on.

When they finally reached their surprise destination, Bennie sat down on a nearby bench to take a break and opened the bag a bit to look inside at The dozens of blue eyes that looked back. She smiled and gestured for them to come out, but they didn’t budge.

“Where are we?”

“We’re in a overgrown garden at the center of the town, it’s been abandoned for about two years now, the tourists don’t know about it and it’s well hidden, I figured you’d want to stretch your legs, or um, your mass outside. I feel bad that you spend most of your time crammed into my bag half the time, so I thought you might enjoy this.” Spore pokes about 5 tiny snake heads out as they looked at their surroundings. The small area was surrounded on all sides by large overgrown draplled willow hedges that towered overhead. The floor was paved with moss covered cobblestone with a tiny fountain in the center that had long since dried out. Intertwining vines of purple Clematis, orange trumpets, and honeysuckle were scattered about the garden in wild disarray wishing the overgrown grass, despite everything beginning to die because of the cold, the colors were still a startling contrast with the grey sky overhead. 

Bennie smiled and sat contented, keeping an eye out for any potential witnesses, watching as Spore fanned themselves out from the bag and explored their surroundings. Their forms becoming humanoid the more excited they got and they began to feel, prod, and caress the nearby plants with vigor as they stated their curiosity. Bennie had to stop them a few times from eating the mossy rocks but other than that they just silently enjoyed one another’s company for what seemed like hours. Eventually, after scouring the whole area like a desperate child who spent their whole life indoors until that very moment. Spore fused their forms closely together as they sat down next to Bennie on the bench, they looked like a strange conjoined. Mermaid when Bennie turned to look at them when they sighed contently. 

“We do not get bored or uncomfortable, but... thank you. This is nice.” 

“Maybe this can be our new thing? We can come here every Saturday from now on if you’d like.”

“From now on...” they trailed off as they seemed to realize something. Bennie, concerned, rolled over so that she was sitting with her feet on the bench and her head in their lap looking up at them.

“What’s wrong Spore? You suddenly seem down.”

“It’s... when you said ‘from now on’, it made me think about the future. How long we’d be staying here, with you. Does that not bother you?”

“... Are you worried about being a burden? Because you’re not dummy, you’re my friend. You can stay as long as you’d like.”

“Wouldn’t they put a hinderence on you? What about your plans to leave? Your plans to start a life for yourself?” Bennie closed her eyes for a moment, thinking about what the right words to say would be. Truth was, she liked Spore a lot. They were funny, kind, and polite. They knew what it was like to grow up in an unsafe environment with people who wanted to use them. She felt tied to them now, like... their lives were intertwined. She didn’t want them to leave and she knew that if they asked, she’d leave SilverSurvey in a heartbeat for them. It was scary how strongly she felt about this, about how much she cared about them already.

“Well... you can come with me, we can make a life together, wherever we want to go, whatever we want to do. I feel like we can do it.” She opened her eyes to look up at them as she said it so they could better read her earnestly. They hummed loudly in response, placing a hand on her forehead as they absorbed her words. Eventually, they nodded.

“We can do it. If there is ever a situation where we must leave, we will be sure to take you with us.”

“Likewise.” 

They sat together like that for about half an hour in content silence. The cold air and freezing stone against her back were the only things that prevented her from falling asleep. Eventually, they had to leave when they heard voices or people nearby. Spore quietly went back into the bag while Bennie stretched and got up, ready to head back home. 

They were about halfway home when she noticed something strange near where the dense wood met the old cracked pavement. It was a pale mass that, with the closer they got, looked like an old discarded sheet. Suddenly, Spore stopped her walk by wrapping themselves around her upper torso like a hug from behind. She didn’t realize why until she saw the red nails. 

It was an arm. Apparently torn from the shoulder, the white gleam of the scapula glinted dully in the cloudy afternoon light as it peaked out from the pale red and pink tissue surrounding it. 

“Don’t look Bennie!” Spore shouted as they tried to block her view.

But it was too late.

Already Bennie felt rooted to the spot as she bagan to make sense of what she was seeing. It was the right arm of a young woman, the red nail polish contrasting against the white skin and orange dead grass was what stuck out to Bennie the most. She felt sick, stumbling back as she started to breath in quick hyperventilated breaths. Spore frantically tried to block her view while simultaneously wrapping themselves around her protectively.

“W-we gotta-We gotta call P-pops. Call Pops!” 

“You left your phone at home Bennie. You have to get up, whoever did this could still be nearby. Please get up Bennie, we got you, you’re safe.” They encouraged her, pushing large tendrils against the pavement as they helped her to her feet. Shakily, Bennie stepped forward before Spore stopped her again.

“Go back to the coffee shop, if Watch is still there he can help, he works for the police remember?”

“O-okay.” Bennie slowly want from a shaky jog into a full sprint back towards the coffee shop. Upon reaching it she saw, much to her releif, he was indeed still there. She burst through the door, the loud thump making Watch look up from whatever it was he was doing. Upon seeing the look on her face he immediatly stood up and briskly made his way over to her.

“What’s wrong Kid?”

“T-there’s a body.” His eyes widened before ushering her out the door, being sure to avoid any questions from Suds about where they were going.

“Show me where you found it.” Bennie nodded, turning and walking quickly towards where she found the arm with WTch following close behind. When they found it Watch crouched down to examine it before standing and turning to Bennie, who was trying her best not to look at it.

“Go home Kid, I’ll come by later to ask you some questions, do not talk to anyone you see on the way home. Do you understand? This is officially a crime scene.”

“Okay...” she started to make her way back home, feeling numb, when she heard Watch mumble under his breath.

“This is the first murder to this case, whoever did this must of been hella strong. The body can’t be that far.” He has started to say more before Bennie was too far away to hear him. She went home in a half jog-half run that left her breathless once the house was in view. Spore had been oddly silent the whole time, but the feel of the warm bag against her back was comforting in its own way. She walked inside quietly, leaving her shows in the hallway to hopefully sneak back upstairs. But as soon as she passed the door that led to the kitchen, Pops burst through in his usual chipper mood.

“So Bennie, How was your day in town?” Upon seeing her paled expression, his face fell as he looked down at her, concern written plainly on his face.

“What’s wrong Bennie? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Please don’t freak out.” She blurted, looking down at her shoes. She couldn’t stand to see the look on his face when she told him the news.

“Bennie...” She felt his hands gently grab her shoulders. 

“What happened? I won’t freak out.”

“Well... I was on my way back here right? And um... I found an arm-“

“What?! Bennie are you okay?” He yelled, obviously freaking out. She looked up to see his face agape with horror. She put her hands up defensively.

“You said you wouldn’t freak! I left my phone here so I went and got Detective Watch because I ran into him earlier at Sud’s and he sent me back here.”

“He sent you back alone?! That little scrub! You must have been in shock, and he just sent you back by yourself-“ He was suddenly interrupted from his rant by Bennie wrapping her arms around him to pull him into a hug. Sighing, he returned the gesture before kneeling down to look her in the eye.

“Alright Bennie, why don’t you head upstairs for a bit. Want a Mocha? I can bring it up later.”

“Yes please, thank you Pops.” He patted her shoulder warmly before allowing her to pass by him and head upstairs. Upon reaching her room Spore suddenly bloomed out from the bag and wrapped her into another protective hug. Bennie smiled weakly at them as they sat down on the bag.

“Thanks for helping me calm down back there buddy.”

“We apologize, we should have seen the body part sooner, but we were relaxed. We’ve found that ever since we’ve been here our guards been down.”

“There’s no need to apologize for that. The fact that you were relaxed at all is a good thing. It shows how much you’ve gotten used to life here.”

“Still, I should have been more careful, it’s not only us we have to look out for now.”

“What?” Instead if answering, they tightened their hold on her for a moment before returning to the bag shortly before Pops came in with Cinnamon spiced Mocha Coffee. He sat down next to her on the bed, his weight causing the bed to sink dramatically in an arch, making them both laugh. After handing the mug over to her, he slouched over to put his elbows on his knees and, clasping his hands together, began to do the parent speech.

“Bennie... I don’t want you going out into the woods anymore by yourself. We can close shop around the afternoon and go together to look. I’m not taking any chances here, this’ll be the first murder in this town in 10 years. You understand what that means right?” She nodded as she sipped from the cup, she knew what he meant all too well. In this town, when there is a murder, there tend to be copycat crimes for a short amount of time until the news calms down about the incident. More people will come to town for more macabre reasons. Ect. People were like vultures, especially for something like this in a small town. Bennie that at least half of the populace knew about it already.

“Okay Pops, at least until the guy is caught right?”

“Exactly, now don’t worry about it to much, but please stay home for the weekend, alright?”

“Alright.” She sighed, there was something else she wanted to do with Spore, but she supposed it could wait till next weekend. Pops got up then, the bed popped back up and she bounced slightly as it settled. With a wave, he left her alone once more. Spore came back out and settled into a semi-circle around her on the bed with three main forms. 

“Your Pops is very nice. Though it is concerning that he’ll be going with us into the woods from now on.”

“Yeah he’s a affectionate guy, let’s hope the guy is caught soon.” She said as she laid her head down against their form, they wrapped around her slightly as they both relaxed and listened outside.

It had started to rain.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

The man ran through the woods for dear life, limping heavily as he tried to keep the weight off of his mangled leg. Tears streamed down his face as he ran through the now wet underbrush of the woods. He screamed as he tripped over a large upturned root in the ground. Whimpering, he clutched his leg as he tried to quiet his breathing. 

“Where are you going?”

The man screamed, scooting away from where he heard the voice. A man clad in a grey-blue suit stepped out from the tree line. His skin was a light grey blue and he didn’t seem to have any dirt or rain on him as he calmly walked forward. He leaned down to look the bleeding man over. His huge ski goggles reflected the mans petrified face back at him as he pleaded for his life with half words and sobs.

“Now now, crying will do you no good, your daughter tried that already, remember? If you only told me what I needed to know none of this would have happened.”

“Y- you’re crazy! I don’t even know what a Cnidaria is!” The man yelled, bitter tears rolled down his cheeks at the memory of his daughters death just moments before. She hit the ‘thing’ that called itself ‘The Agent’, nearly knocking the goggles off before making a run for it. The Agent moved faster than humanly possible once it recovered from its shock, the sound of her screaming when he ripped her arm off still echoed in his mind as he looked up at her killer. The Agent studied the man for a moment before signing and standing up. 

“It seems you’re telling the truth, you haven’t seen it either... no matter, I just have to be more diligent with my search.” The agent spoke as he began to walk off. The man stood, seeing red, he lunged for the Agent in a vengeful rage. But halfway into his first swing, The agent swung back abruptly and caught his fist in his hand before crushing it. Going white hot pain caused the man to scream in agony, only to be cut short when the Agent caught him by the throat, snapping his neck quickly before continuing on his walk. 

At first, he had been hesitant to hurt the beings on this planet due to protocols in place to preserve this planet. But after a signal conference with his employer, he had gotten permission to capture the hydra by ‘any means necessary’. 

Meaning he was allowed to kill. 

The Agent made his way back to the pit where his trackers had told him the thing had landed, it was also where he had been interviewing and locals he could get his hands on in the nearby woods. He didn’t know how it was able to leave, but no matter. Even if it was now in the possession of the local apex beings, he would get the thing for his employer. Even if it meant going into the more densely populated areas of the civilization.

By any means necessary, of course.


End file.
